Discourse Coherence in English-Chinese Translation of Literary Texts: A Case Study on Tess of the D'Urbervilles Translated by Zhang Guruo

Abstract

Discourse coherence refers to the mechanism by which words, sentences, and sentence clusters in a discourse are logically related to form a larger semantic structure, which is one of the most important factors of effective communication. Whether a discourse is coherent determines the extent to which the reader understands the discourse. This paper explores the theory of discourse translation and discourse coherence, compares and analyses the original text of Tess of the D'Urbervilles with Zhang Guruo's translated version in terms of semantic, contextual, logical, and linguistic coherence. Then it describes the strategies and methods used by the translators to ensure discourse coherence in translation, to gain a deeper understanding of the theory of discourse coherence and its application.